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Playlist obfuscation was solved for me for a short time, thanks to this guy's method. Recently, Powerdvd is refusing to play most of my Cinavia discs. Blackcell mentioned using Potplayer, but I don't have Anydvd.

Cinavia compliance was the price of a BDA license that killed full menu support in media players.

Blackssr's mother makes it a hobby to ferret out the correct playlist for obfuscated titles, especially Lions Gate. He then usually posts the playlist here.

I have Potplayer which I use to play some DVD rips that VLC has trouble with -- always it is some rip that DVD Fab has screwed up. I'm not aware that it plays full BD menus. I know it does not play .iso files.

- kelson h

The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten . . . life is too short to drink bad wine

I have two Dune HD Base 3.0s, a Dune Smart, an Oppo BDP-93 and an Oppo 103D. All can play BD ISOs. The Oppos can play 3D ISOs and the 103D can do it all over the network. I rip everything to straight ISO and it's soooo easy. Don't have to worry about playlists or transcoding or converting or anything. I love it and will use these devices until they no longer function.

That's fine and dandy for people that are still using one of those legacy Dune or PCH players that support BD menus -- or a licensed software player on a HTPC. But for the rest of us using the current crop of players, that is guaranteed to not work for a good fraction of disks.

I have several newer media players as well as a couple of older ones that have full BD menu playback. I have no problem using BD ISO with my new media players(with BD lite) for the vast majority of titles. There are only a small amount of titles that have caused me any issues with my BD lite players. And for those I use MakeMKV and create an MKV of just the movie.

I have several newer media players as well as a couple of older ones that have full BD menu playback. I have no problem using BD ISO with my new media players(with BD lite) for the vast majority of titles. There are only a small amount of titles that have caused me any issues with my BD lite players. And for those I use MakeMKV and create an MKV of just the movie.

I recently discovered the Dune Smart players will not play all BD menu on some movies. When you hit play it goes to a never-ending black screen. For these titles the bd-lite option works fine. I really only use full-bd for discs with playlist obfuscation, and that's if I'm too lazy to use the method I described above.

Just a note, Lionsgate has put a pretty crafty scheme to impede copy protection. You can see this when you scan the movie "John Wick" in MakeMKV. After scanning, the program lists about 300 (yes, 300) versions of the title film, all showing the same number of chapters and file size.

You cannot just select one and make your MKV file. The movie itself is divided into multiple streams (about two dozen) and each playback file rearranges the files stream in a different order. When you play back the MKV file, the movie will jump from one scene to another in a haphazard order. You have to find the correct file with the correct order of streams in order to watch the movie correctly.

I know that some of their other BR releases have implemented this schema (can't remember which ones though).

Just a note, Lionsgate has put a pretty crafty scheme to impede copy protection. You can see this when you scan the movie "John Wick" in MakeMKV. After scanning, the program lists about 300 (yes, 300) versions of the title film, all showing the same number of chapters and file size.

You cannot just select one and make your MKV file. The movie itself is divided into multiple streams (about two dozen) and each playback file rearranges the files stream in a different order. When you play back the MKV file, the movie will jump from one scene to another in a haphazard order. You have to find the correct file with the correct order of streams in order to watch the movie correctly.

I know that some of their other BR releases have implemented this schema (can't remember which ones though).

This is called playlist obfuscation. It's all over this forum. Players that read JAVA have no problems with this. Other have to search the web for the correct playlist (and this differs for different versions, ie Redbox vs retail), or wait for people to post the correct playlist o this forum, or use the method I described above, compliments on Blackcell.

I have two Dune HD Base 3.0s, a Dune Smart, an Oppo BDP-93 and an Oppo 103D. All can play BD ISOs. The Oppos can play 3D ISOs and the 103D can do it all over the network. I rip everything to straight ISO and it's soooo easy. Don't have to worry about playlists or transcoding or converting or anything. I love it and will use these devices until they no longer function.

Yep. Had a 93 with iso forever and once the 103D could be modified I sold those off and now use just the 103d. Got good money for the 93 and dunes I sold off too! Can't beat the simplicity of iso....

Just a note, Lionsgate has put a pretty crafty scheme to impede copy protection. You can see this when you scan the movie "John Wick" in MakeMKV. After scanning, the program lists about 300 (yes, 300) versions of the title film, all showing the same number of chapters and file size.

On top of that, Lions Gate strips out the HD audio track for rental BD's leaving only DD.

It gets worse -- the last Lions Gate title I compared (can't remember the name) not only stripped out the HD audio but also substantially lowered the bitrate of the rental vs. the retail version.

- kelson h

The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten . . . life is too short to drink bad wine

Playlist obfuscation was solved for me for a short time, thanks to this guy's method. Recently, Powerdvd is refusing to play most of my Cinavia discs. Blackcell mentioned using Potplayer, but I don't have Anydvd.

Could you check your link on this? When I click it it takes me to my post #7901 which has nothing to do with what you are discussing.

- kelson h

The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten . . . life is too short to drink bad wine

It's hard to say. Lions Gate films for sure. I have had this experience with one of the Harry Potter films, RED 2, it's just hit or miss. But it's not just playlist obfuscation, it's also movies with alternate endings (I am Legend), unrated editions (Knocked up), directors cuts (Terminator), etc. It's sometimes hard to get what you want just by looking at the playlists. So, the powerdvd method for choosing the correct playlist helps with all of this. 100% fool proof. Unless Cinavia cripples powerdvd. And if this is the case: full disc rip for my Dune.

On top of that, Lions Gate strips out the HD audio track for rental BD's leaving only DD.

It gets worse -- the last Lions Gate title I compared (can't remember the name) not only stripped out the HD audio but also substantially lowered the bitrate of the rental vs. the retail version.

It's a sin. A crime really. Red/Flix should have really put their foot down when all these negotiations took place and all that "waiting" nonsense should never have happened.

But, I look at it like this: If the rental blew me away, I'll go out and buy the movie. Rarely do I get blown away by movies lately. I'm always tempted to put my Game of Thrones collection on my network. But I have HBO GO in every room. So I choose the significantly lower bit-rate AND demoted audio for the hassle-free convenience and not clogging up my drive capacity with 40 episodes of the show. just my 2¢

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kelson

Could you check your link on this? When I click it it takes me to my post #7901 which has nothing to do with what you are discussing.

EDIT: I guess I didn't word that right in the post. It is well known than the newer media players don't have full BD menu playback. I have an old PCH C200 and a Netgear NTV550 for full BD menu playback. Then with BD lite playback I have the A400's and VTEN. I rarely use the C200 or Netgear. I mainly use the A400's and VTEN.

Just a note, Lionsgate has put a pretty crafty scheme to impede copy protection. You can see this when you scan the movie "John Wick" in MakeMKV. After scanning, the program lists about 300 (yes, 300) versions of the title film, all showing the same number of chapters and file size.

You cannot just select one and make your MKV file. The movie itself is divided into multiple streams (about two dozen) and each playback file rearranges the files stream in a different order. When you play back the MKV file, the movie will jump from one scene to another in a haphazard order. You have to find the correct file with the correct order of streams in order to watch the movie correctly.

I know that some of their other BR releases have implemented this schema (can't remember which ones though).

Lionsgate has been doing this awhile. I just go to the Any DVD forums and they will have the correcet playlist to choose. Then I just select that in MakeMKV.

This accounts for only a very tiny minority of titles.(a fraction of a percent) And not even all the Lionsgate titles do this.

Once Any DVD has a new update, it will show the correct play list to choose. But prior to that I need to find out the info from the forums